HenryZ998
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Removal of sulphuric acid contamination from Zinc Sulphate solution
Hello,
Does anyone have a method of removing sulfuric acid contamination from a zinc sulfate solution, using inexpensive easily obtained materials.
Thanks!
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MolecularWorld
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Add zinc or zinc carbonate until effervescence ceases.
If zinc and zinc carbonate are not available, a portion of the zinc sulfate solution could be reacted with sodium carbonate, the precipitate filtered,
and the zinc carbonate thus formed added to the remaining solution until effervescence ceases.
Someone will probably post that this should be in Beginnings, and they might also accuse this of being a homework or work related question.
[Edited on 19-11-2015 by MolecularWorld]
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HenryZ998
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Thanks!
PS. This was not a homework/work related question, it is related to home experiments.
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Copper
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Thanks!
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AJKOER
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Adding Zn or ZnCO3 is a good idea if the source of the Zinc metal (or the carbonate salt) is pure (no alloys, other heavy metal impurities, ..). But,
is pure Zinc "an inexpensive easily obtained material"?
One could use, as suggested above by MolecularWorld, part of the solution together with food grade NaHCO3, which could be heated to form pure Na2CO3,
to prepare ZnCO3, but this process obviously reduces the yield of ZnSO4.
Perhaps an alternate path (better?) may be to assume that the so described aqueous ZnSO4 and H2SO4 behaves like ZnSO4 together with H2SO4, and not
ZnHSO4. Such behavior is witness for aqueous KHSO4 (see Wikipedia comments at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_bisulfate ), where the addition of ethanol precipitates out the sulfate.
So, an alternate path is to boil down the solution and add ethanol (inexpensive and easily obtained) to see if the ZnSO4 separates out.
Note, completely evaporating the solution could create the sulfate and along with some bisulfate, and with further heating the pyrosulfate,...,
probably not a good idea.
[Edit] If this is a teacher's question, and the teacher is an educator pretending to known chemistry (like my high school chem teacher who was also
the gym coach), my last suggested not so good idea may actually be the teacher's proposed best answer. I would politely suggest, expressing a little
doubt, the possible formation of the hydrogen sulfate given the presence of the acid.
[Edited on 27-11-2015 by AJKOER]
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annaandherdad
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Here is a thread in which removing H2SO4 from ZnSO4 solution is discussed. It also includes links to sites stating the purity of the zinc in
American pennies (according to the references, it is very pure).
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=23059
Any other SF Bay chemists?
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Texium
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Thread Moved
22-12-2015 at 08:11 |
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